


Changes

by amuk



Series: The Road To Life [9]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Death, Friendship, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Loss, Revenge
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-28
Updated: 2013-01-28
Packaged: 2017-11-27 05:19:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 370
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/658411
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amuk/pseuds/amuk
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It hurts to see familiar streets turn to dust. To see smiling faces covered with spots of blood.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Changes

**Author's Note:**

> Theme: 31. I’m laughing in the inside

It hurts to see familiar streets turn into dust. There isn’t even much rubble sticking out of the dirt, not enough for her recognize where her house used to be or the hospital once stood. All she can tell is that there is dirt, rubble, and the remains of what once used to be a monument to greatness. There are no trees left either, no forest where she would train when she was along or hide when she was little.

 

And if this is how Sakura feels about seeing her home turn into a wasteland, she doesn’t even want to realize how she feels about the people. There is no smiling Shizune-nee-chan, ready with Tonton to force Tsunade-shishou to work. The tired but relieved faces of doctors and relatives alike as another patient pulls through. Her mother isn’t yelling at her to come down for breakfast and there is no team to hang out with while they wait for the ramen to be made.

 

Life won’t ever be the same but Sakura realizes this in a distant way. It doesn’t touch her yet, reality hasn’t fully sunk in, but she understands it all the same. When it does fully hit her, she’ll hopefully be alone somewhere, able to cry fully without anyone seeing her.

 

(She doesn’t want to be caught crying yet. Maybe a little later, but those first tears belong to her and to the dead alone.)

 

It still doesn’t sink in when Naruto’s saving them and Tsunade-shishou needs her. It’s only when she holds the older woman’s hands that she is brought back to the present and accepts that there is no way they can ever go back.

 

(And that’s ironic, because hasn’t that been what she and Naruto trying to do for years? To go back to a time when Sasuke-kun was a part of Team Seven?)

 

It’s another sign of change when she watches their battle calmly. She isn’t very worried or panicky, she isn’t trying to help and feeling disappointed that she can’t. Naruto’s once again touched another level that she can’t reach and she is fine with it.

 

He punches Pein and she nearly smiles.

 

(It’s the closest she can ever get to revenge.)


End file.
